Skippin’ Francey to go to Francia, with a little bit of Bologna (Paris)

Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart – the song from Anastasia that I had stuck in my head the entire time I was there.
While walking to school on Wednesday with my friend Kelsey from school, we had the following conversation:
“So what are you doing this weekend?” I asked as we hiked up the hill.
“I’m going to Barcelona,” Kelsey replied. “What about you?”
“I’m going to Paris.”
“… That conversation was awesome.”
So, dear reader, I found myself with quite a few dilemmas with this trip which all amount to this: to go or not to go.
Morgan and I had planned this trip weeks ago when Morgan found cheap flights to Paris. We found one from Pisa and one from Bologna: 8 Euro. You read that right. Eight. Only Eight.
The trip back to Pisa was about 15. Less than 25 euro round trip flight? Hellz to the yes.
So we booked Bologna -> Paris -> Pisa. Awesome. Thursday, Friday, come back late (very late) Saturday and take a train on Sunday. Win.
Except for one thing: A mandatory business thing got scheduled for Morgan on Friday. She couldn’t go. I had already booked my flights and could have just said to hell with it and taken the loss.
Or, I could have gotten my money’s worth and gone on the trip alone. I decided to go to Paris.
By myself.
Now, I had just gone to Venice by myself, but I met up with people from school. Paris had me all by myself (I knew other people going but Venice is smaller than Paris so running into them was less likely in the City of Lights) for essentially three days.

With my mind set, my second dilemma came in getting to Bologna. The trains left at 11:39, 1:39 and 3:39 or something. My flight left at like 8 and it takes at least 3 hours to get to Bologna, then the airport is half an hour away. The last one was cutting it too close for me. You never know, especially with my experience with trains from Venice.
Now. 11:39 or 1:39. Third problem: My class Franciscan class (lovingly referred to as Francey by Leigh, Mary and I) gets out at 1:30 if Dr. C doesn’t go overtime. I didn’t want to risk having to get to the station in less than 9 minutes, so I decided to skip class. I think that Dr. C, my mother, and Francey will forgive me.
So after our Italian quiz (got an A btw) I headed home to get some last minute things and took a leisurely walk to the minimetro and got to the station in plenty of time.
Trip to Bologna was uneventful, which is unusual given my last few train rides. In Bologna I checked out the major monuments, got a final helping of gelato, and wandered around for a while. Finally I made my way to the airport and got there just over 2 hours before my flight.

I couldn’t check in yet because Ryanair is dumb and wouldn’t stamp my passport (since I’m not an EU citizen) until like an hour before my boarding call (dumb and that’s never happened to me before) so I sat around.
A woman of about 25-27 approached me. Here’s how our conversation went:
Woman: “Gibberish in French??”
Me: “I don’t speak French. English?”
“No.” Stare.
“Ummm. Italiano?”
“SI SI SI!!! Mi chiamo Nadia.”
“Francesca. Posso capire l’italiano, ma puoi parlare piu lentamente per favore?” (I can understand Italian, but can you speak very slowly please?”
“Si. Parigi?”
“Si…”
Through gestures and my limited knowledge of Italian, here’s the story:
Her bag was too heavy for the carry-on weight limit, and she didn’t want to be charged extra. Could I take something from her bag and put it in mine until we got through security? She was getting married on Saturday. (I think she threw that in for sympathy points.)
If she had been older or creepier I would have said no. But she seemed desperate. And the only thing she wanted me to take was her laptop. If it had been anything that I couldn’t tell what it was, I would have refused. But no. I took her laptop and put it in my bag.
We got through everything fine and I gave her back her computer. She bought me all sorts of snacks (chips, diet coke, and a snickers) as a thanks, which was awesome since I was hungry and airports are expensive.
We sat together on the plane, but I put my headphones in, to drown out the screaming children that always seem to be on Ryanair planes, and fell asleep as I usually do. Then I had to take a 15 Euro bus into Paris, which took like an hour and a half. Awesome.
Now, since my mother was fretting about me being alone and it was after midnight, I said that I would take a cab to my first hostel. But there was a metro station nearby so I decided to chance it since it would be cheaper.
Unfortunately the metro stop was closed and the information guy was like “take the bus!” Except when I went to look at the bus thing, there were like 9832478397 buses stopping there and I didn’t feel like trying to figure one out.
So I hailed a cab at one of the Taxi signs, and climbed in. Driver didn’t know where my hostel was, so he put it in his GPS. The usual stranger conversation started:
“So where are you from?”
“America,” I replied.
“Oh. So how long are you in Paris?”
“The weekend.”
“You came all the way to Paris for one weekend?”
“No,” I said tersely, “I’m studying in Italy.”
“So you’re learning Italian?”
“… Yes…”
“No one cares about Italian. You should learn French. It’s the language of business after English. And when you learn French you can go anywhere in the world… like Africa.”
“Uhh. Okay.” Really I wanted to say, “I don’t want to go to Africa… I wanted to go to Italy.”
So after the GPS took us to a dead end, he called the hostel to confirm the address. It was correct. So he drove around some more until I spotted it. Thank God this hostel had a legit sign. He took a Euro off my meter so that left my total at… 13… which is about 12 more than I would have had to pay with the metro. Eff.
Anyway, I checked in and got into my room, waking up the two girls sleeping in there. They were nice though and I got ready and went to be really quickly.

The next day was my big day in Paris. My hostel was close, so I started out by headin’ to the Moulin Rouge, which I had passed the night before. It’s less cool during the day, so I decided I would come back at night.

A medley of songs ran through my head from the movie.

I was gonna take the metro to my next destination, but it was so nice out that I decided to walk. Ok, that’s not exactly true. I couldn’t find the metro stop so I wandered around until I saw a sign that said it wasn’t far away.

My second stop, probably pretty high up there with my favorite one in Paris, was the Opera! It’s where Phantom of the Opera takes place, and it’s AMAZING.

I didn’t get to see the lake, but just being there was awesome.

The Opera house is just stunning.

So in Paris I took over 350 pictures, which is over half of what I took on my entire Spring Break. My camera died by the end. Not yet, but here's the first facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=385836&id=697649967&l=2a708cf997

Next I walked to the Louvre. So much stuff. Like I could have spent a week in there and not seen everything. I was so tired from walking everywhere (I had my backpack since I couldn’t check into my second hostel and my first one was quite out of the way) so I would sit and observe at every opportunity.
I’m not reeeeeeeally an art person. I don’t understand a lot of it. I like looking at stuff I guess, but I don’t know why some art is prized more than others. Mona Lisa? Not that impressive. Some statue of Venus without arms? There are plenty of cool ones with arms. Headless woman with wings statue? Uhh cool?
But still, it was cool to be in the biggest museum in the world. I would definitely go back to it. Afer wandering, I was thirsty and wanted a snack, so I decided to get one from the café in the Louvre. It was super busy and I finally got up to the counter. Dude who took my order was definitely trying to put some moves on.
“Hi,” he started. Not proper food-service greeting in my opinion, but whatever.
“Hi can I have – “
“Where are you from?”
“Uh. New York. Can I –“
“Oh New York. Like the city?”
“No I live across the state. Can I get –“
“That’s cool. So what are you doing in Paris?”
Wtf dude. I just want some peach tea and a pistachio macaroon. Stop trying to chat me up with 300 people in line behind me.
As I finally escape to enjoy my macaroon, some guy sits down next to me. Cool, cute French boy talking on his phone. Nice. Some other tourist comes up and asks me in English where the Louvre is, so I tell him, obviously in English.
French boy hangs up phone and begins to chat:
“So you’re visiting Paris.”
“Yeah.” Obviously. I think I get more annoyed with people when I’m alone.
“So where are you from?”
“New York.”
“And how long will you be in Paris?”
“Until tomorrow.”
“Are you traveling alone?” Red flag number 1. Number 2 is that he hasn’t asked my name yet, which is usually early in the conversation.
“No, I’m meeting a friend in a little bit.” I never say “Yeah I’m alone for 3 days no big deal.”
“So where are you staying?” Red flag 3. There is no reason he needed to know that.
“With my friend. I don’t know where. Enjoy the nice weather.” I got up and walked away. I just need to be more careful alone than when in a group, and this guy was making my red flags fly. I guess it could have been harmless, but the direction was not a normal one that my conversations with others in foreign countries have taken. He didn’t even ask if I liked Paris…
After those weird encounters, I made my way to Notre Dame. I had received a tip from Tina about Paris: the Hunchback was not currently in Notre Dame. I decided to see if he went to a less frequented church, so decided to stop at St. Germaine’s church on the way.
Both of the churches were really pretty. I liked the small one since it was less crowded. Plus, there was some weird French concert thing outside Notre Dame, which was hard to maneuver through. Still, I like the churches since they’re different from the Italian ones I’m used to.
Finally I went to my second hostel of Paris (none of the hostels had dorms open both nights. I would have had to pay for a whole private room if I wanted the same one. No way.) to drop off my stuff and check in.
Check in guy asked “Who are you?”
“Francesca DiCillo.”
“No, who are you?”
“Uh. Francesca DiCillo.”
“No. Like in Italian, Come stai? You say Sto bene. Who are you?”
“Oh. You mean HOW are you. I’m fine.”
I can’t wait until I can understand people and they can understand me. In English. It was easier for me to get by with speaking Italian to people. They seemed to understand that more than English.

My next bit was to this one landmark that I guess Paris is famous for. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Yeah. I went to the Eiffel Tower.
I wanted to see the tower in both daylight and darkness, so I got there early enough to see both. The sun was still quite up at around 7, so I had to wait around. I decided that while I was there I would go up the tower.
My motto seems to be: Well, when in _____ (Insert name of whatever city I’m in that weekend)!!
So I stood in line. For like 2 hours total, what with the line to get a ticket, security, and each level of the tower has a line to get further up. It was only 11 euro. I could have taken the stairs for like 3 euro, but I think my legs would have just died. I mean, they were already screaming in agony from the amount of walking and standing I had done so far that day.
I finally got up to the top at night. I then tried about 80000 settings on my camera to get the views, but nothing can compare to how beautiful Paris is by night from such a vantage point. I stayed up there for at least half an hour.
The Tower sparkles at night. Literally sparkles. I was in the process of going up the first time it happened, then I was at the top the second time, and finally at the third time I got to see it. It was easily my favorite thing I saw in Paris. Paris holds the key to my heart, and it is apparently shaped like a sparkling Eiffel Tower.
I even uploaded a video of it because I was so impressed:


After, I got a Nutella Crepe, since I figured it would be a sin not to get a crepe in Paris.

Then I went back to see the Moulin Rouge at night. It’s much more impressive than during the day.
At this point it was at least 10:30 and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. So I went back to my hostel since there was a nice restaurant next to it.
At dinner, I noticed people staring at me (probably since it was a nice place and I was obviously alone and don’t speak French) but none more than the couple seated closest to me.
The worst part about eating alone is that awkward time between when you order and when your food arrives. Before you order, you have a menu. When you get your food, you concentrate on eating. In between, you just get to observe. In my case, I observed that I was being observed.
The woman of the couple got up and left for a while, so while I was sitting there the man approached me.
“Blah blah blah gibberish in French and stuff I can’t understand.”
“Oh I don’t speak French.”
“Oh. Why are you so sad?”
I was confused. “I’m not sad. I’m just tired.” It was after 11 and I had literally been walking around ALL DAY.
Read this with your best French accent: “You are so sad because you do not speak French.”
“Uh. I’m not sad.”
The wife came back at this point.
“Oh my husband looks at you and says ‘look at the girl. She is so sad. She must be having problems’. Are you having problems?”
“… No.”
“See? Would you like to come sit with us anyway?”
“I was about to leave, but sure.” I paid my check then sat and chatted with them for a few minutes. Gave them the whole story. Typical first meeting stuff. I’m an American studying in Perugia and I decided to come to Paris for the weekend. No I don’t speak French. Yes, Paris is wonderful. No, I do not want to learn French… etc…
After a while I excused myself and went next door to my hostel. It was about midnight, but I wanted to shower. I wanted to just go quickly and go to bed, but my shower had other plans.
It was literally the best shower I’ve had in Europe. Hands down. I stayed in for so long because the warmth and water pressure were perfect. The only reason I finished was because my legs were literally about to give out from exhaustion.
I went to bed. The other people in my room came in at about 6 AM. Ugh.
Here's my second album:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=385840&id=697649967&l=f494df2505

Anyway, I got up way too early the next day. Like 7:30. On a Saturday.
I got to the French Tourism Center and got onto a trip to Versailles.
I was the only one who spoke English – everyone else was Brazilian or Spanish. So the tour guide had to give us the tour as we drove to the palace in three different languages. And the roads suck and the bus was rattle-y so here’s how the tour went:
“And on your left is CRASHRATTLEBOOMNOISEWTF”
For like an hour.
Versailles was awesome. At one point I texted Tina and was like “I’m in a real palace.” They had an exhibit throughout the normal museum of thrones from different countries since they’re a symbol of wealth and power and such.
The bedchambers were generally my favorites. I loved it so much. Too bad we couldn’t get to Marie Antoinette’s estate; it only opened at noon and we were leaving then. Sad. Oh well. Guess I’ll just have to go back.
I think when you’re alone people assume you want company. This is not always true, but the Brazilians seemed to think that I was sad being alone. The mother and daughter were super nice and they felt bad for me so I went with them to Sacre Coure since I had some time to kill before I had to get ready for my bus ride and flight.
The church is really pretty and is up on a hill, which makes it both breathtaking and kind of annoying to get to. But it was really nice. I did down an entire Powerade because it was so freakin’ warm outside and we had hiked up all the stairs and had to dodge all of the guys trying to sell us Eiffel Tower keychains for 1 euro.
After we explored the church, the Brazilians had to go meet another from their country for lunch, but not before suggesting I go to the Rodin Museum.
I did. It was cool. Lots of weirdly unfinished things, but cool. There were like sculptures in a park and it was free since I’m an Italian student. Win.
So I took the subway and got my bags and had a snack before heading to the bus stop. Except when I get to the metro stop and go outside, it’s POURING.
Like, a river was literally running down from the sky onto the streets of Paris. A waterfall was dumped onto, thankfully, my umbrella that I brought.
I bought my ticket and sprinted to my bus. I actually had to wait for awhile since they only let certain flights onto the buses so that people get there at the right time, but I got to the bus that said “Pise, Terminal 1.” I assumed Pise was French for Pisa, and was correct.
So I fell asleep on the bus for the ride until we got to the airport. I got off at Terminal 1 and once the bus pulled away I was ready to go. Except outside of terminal 1 there is a sign that lists all the destinations and which terminal they leave from. Terminal 2 says Pise. I was like wtf the bus said terminal 1.
Thankfully it wasn’t raining as I stood and stared at the sign. I decided to check out T1 anyway. It had Pise listed as a departure from their gate. Awesome. It started raining again, and I would have been pissed if I had to walk to T2.
I had to wait around again for my flight to be able to be checked in, so I did what I usually do. I ate things that are bad for me. Chips, chocolate mousse, and a snickers bar. Not all at once, but the flights here don’t check in as early as I’m used to.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, except for cute children. One told her mother she wanted my hair. I was impressed with her excellent choice in hair styles.
I got to Pisa and took a cab instead of trying to figure out a bus at midnight. I asked my hostel guy about daylight savings time and he had no idea what I was talking about.
So I woke up at “9” the next morning and found out that there was, in fact, a time change and that it was now 10. I wanted to change and peace out, but some guy was in the bathroom. I didn’t want to change in my room because there were 4 guys in it. They were sleeping, but still. Uncomfortable. I was gonna wait for bathroom guy, but he was in the damn bathroom from 10 until after I left. Like, come on dude.
At one point I went and knocked on the door, knowing he hadn’t come out yet, and there was no answer. So I did the best thing I could think of to check if someone was in there: I turned off the light. The light switch was outside of the bathroom so it worked. After a few seconds I heard “EXCUSE ME?” And I turned the light on and ran away. Win.
So I sucked it up and changed quickly in the bedroom so I wouldn’t miss my train that I thought was at 11:11. I get to the station (after getting a little lost) at 10:50. The line was long but I didn’t see the train listed that I was supposed to be on.
I got up to the counter.
“Isn’t there an 11:11 train to Perugia?”
“No there’s an 11:32 train now. It changed.” Oh Italy.
“Ok. So you take the 11:32 train and the train from Firenze is at 2:30. So you stay in Firenze for 2 hours.”
What. The. Eff.
See, when I get close to Perugia I just always want to get back as soon as possible. A train from Florence at 2:30 won’t get to Perugia until about 4:40. Effffffff.
I had no other options so I took it. I did have fun wandering around Florence for a while, wondering why all of the vendors sell the same things and also wondering if anyone actually buys stuff.
The train actually left Florence at 2:13 (I’m not sure if that’s what the guy actually said. 30 and 13 sound the same in English when it isn’t your first language…) so I got back to Perugia at like 4:20. I was home by 4:30 and loving life.
All in all, traveling by myself was awesome. Paris was amazing. Nothing went (too) wrong.
No more big alone trips planned for now. Just a few more weeks and I’m home. So Happy. So Sad. Confused.
I literally have 1 month left and the time is flying by. Whoa.
Ciao tutti!

Not all who wander (in Verona) are lost, and Water, water everywhere (in Venezia)

Alternatively titled "You must see it because it is there" or "What to do when every train to Florence is sold out and you get home 6 hours later than you expected."

I like the title I chose better.

So since I let the cat out of the bag about 30 years before I meant to, I guess I should inform you, dear reader, that I took this trip alone. Like literally alone. Mary couldn't go since the finances do not work out in anyone's favor: travel alone was over 100 euro since Venezia is quite far from Perugia. Also, Venice is notoriously expensive because it is a tourist trap. And everyone else that I know had already gone to Venice.

Whatever. I wasn't going to tell mom for at least 30 years. I got away with it until my train problems on the way back. I would have gotten away with it too, if she ever read her texts.

But, I digress. I went to them by myself. I wasn't going to miss one of the places that I really wanted to see just because no one could come with me. No way.

SO I had a really good time. Traveling by myself was scary, but rewarding. Plus I got to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, which is nice.

This is where the actual blog starts:

Verona is awesome. It was one of my favorite cities that I've visited so far.

The Arena is stunningly well preserved.

Unfortunately they are fixing the stage inside since they still use it for performances and such, so a lot of the arena was closed down. It was still cool though, and slightly less crowded than the more famous equivalent in Roma.

In one of the main piazzas, there is a whale bone hanging precariously over an entrance. It will only fall when someone who has never told a lie walks under it. Naturally, it fell when I walked under.

Lol jk that was a lie. It's still there.

Now, tourist and English major combined makes for a nerd trip: Juliet's house. Full of tourists and probably not even her real house (definitely not...), it was still cool to see. I wrote on the wall leading in, which is supposed to give everlasting love.

The balcony was added in the 1920's for tourists, but that doesn't stop people (except me) from spending 7 or 8 euros to go stand on it.

There is also a statue there of Juliet. Allegedly it's good luck if you touch her breast. Like people would stand there and take pictures of them doing so.

Two things: I don't know why anyone asks Juliet for help when in love. Please watch this video to see why:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwnFE_NpMsE

Juliet is probably the WORST example of luck in love. Why don't people ask some of the happier girls like the ones in the comedies? Kate from Taming of the Shrew comes to mind (ironically I passed through Padua on my way to Venice...) since I maintain that she's gonna be an awesome wife. But still.

Second thing: I would rather have seen Hamlet's house. R+J is not one of my favorite plays, and Hamlet was the freakin' prince of Denmark. I think his house would be sweet. But La Casa di Giulietta was cool. Romeo's house is around there too, but it's not very well marked and there's like a plaque. That's it.

After wandering around Verona for a while, I came across a taste of home:

Someone tried to get me to adopt an adorable orange kitty. I immediately texted my mother to tell her of this momentous occasion.

After that, I hopped on a two hour train to Venice. Here was my first view:

Now, Venice is confusing as all get out. You can't cross the canal as you would a road (obvvv) and their transportation system is made up of boats. No cars here. I asked some people how to get to my hostel. One pizza man drew me this:

With such great skill, he should teach art. I shouldn't knock him too much. I found my hostel using the handy little napkin map.

So after having dinner at the hostel and unpacking, a group of us went out with a guide from the staff. We went to one bar and, in honor of the unification of Italy, got these:

Cool! It looks like the Italian flag! That's cute... UNTIL THEY LIGHT IT ON FIRE AND YOU DRINK IT WHILE IT'S ON FIRE.

Strawberry, Sambucca, Absinthe. Someone was like "well obviously they light it on fire, it has Sambucca in it." No, not obvious. Why would I know that? Or why wouldn't the bartender be like "Oh by the way we light this shot on fire."

I ended up meeting with some of my friends from school who happened to be in Venice at the same time.

After returning very late, I got up early to start the full day of Venice. Some people from my hostel wanted to travel together, so we all wandered. I found traveling with others to be quite annoying after my solo-stint in Verona, but it was all right.

Here's some of the stuff we saw:

We even went to Murano, an island in the Venetian Lagoon, to see the glass blowing. I think that that stuff is so cool!

I also uploaded some videos of him in action:

Only one of them made it by the time this was published. Check back for the other one later!

Venice was awesome, but a bit overrated. I wasn't sold on it while I was there. When I was home, however, I felt like I was still on the water and I missed it already.

OH. OH. Getting home was a huge ordeal. I hadn't planned on what time I was leaving Venice. I wrote down all the train times that went from Venice to Florence to Perugia. There was one every 2 hours so I wasn't worried.

EXCEPT WHEN I GOT THERE AT 1:20 EVERY ONE WAS SOLD OUT. I could have taken an overnight train, but I was like... No.

After whimpering to the ticket lady and nearly pulling out waterworks, she got me a standing room only ticket on a train from Bologna. So I had to go to Bologna and wait there for an hour and a half (their station is mostly outdoors too so it was cold) only to not have a seat on the next train. The train was packed. Like the entire aisle was full.

Fortunately people got off at the stop half an hour in, so I ganked their seats, which is allowed. What annoyed me was that when I was trying to get to Florence I asked the lady if I could just stand on the train. She said no. On my train from Venice to Bologna there were people standing because there were no seats. Wtf.

Either way, I got home safely and at Midnight, almost 6 hours after I had planned on getting home. It put a little damper on my trip, but it was still fun.

And Mom, I'm fine. Look. Nothing bad happened. Except I probs spent too much money, which is usual.

The semester is winding down too rapidly. I can't believe that I'll be going home in just over a month!

Here's the link to my album for the rest of my trip:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=382882&id=697649967&l=b1e916b881

"I have made the unfortunate discovery that my shoes leak" (Milano and AC Milan)

So this past weekend was a super exciting one. First, my food class went to Florence to this restaurant that recreates dishes from the past. It was... interesting. Here are the dishes:

Ginger lasagnuoli: sixteenth century Jesuit dish

Chocolate Boar: Late renaissance Medici dish

Pepposo: allegedly made by Brunelleschi to keep the workers going on the dome of the cathedral in Florence. It takes three days to make… The fruit was crunchy pear.

Uhm. All of them were interesting. I liked the ginger pasta the best, but I don't think I would order any of them if I ever saw them at a restaurant. I'm expanding my tastes, but not that far.

After an interesting adventure in Florence, it was off to Milan for me, Kara, Leigh, Mary, and Morgan. The only downside was that this adventure began with a bus at 4:40 AM...

After packing and getting little sleep, we got ourselves to the bus station on time, which is no small feat when the escalators that normally take you down there aren't running and you have to find a new way down on the fly.

So we get there at about 4:30 and we wait... and wait... and wait until 5:20 WHEN THE BUS FINALLY SHOWS UP. We settled into our seats and prepared for the long ride. We got to Milan at about 12. 5:20 to noon on a bus = not fun but not bad for sleeping.

We found our hostel (which was actually outside of Milan...), then proceeded into the city. It was awesome because they still are celebrating Carvnivale and down the street there was a Communist rally. No big deal.

We explored, we shopped, we had great food. The usual. the second day it was raining my shoes leaked.

The only really differentiating factor in Milan was AC MILAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've never been to a soccer game (or calcio as they call it here...) but it reminded me of Sabres games. The fans are quite similar, even if I couldn't tell what they were saying. The love the players when something goes right, but the second one of them messes up they are hated.

AS Bari is the last place team in the division or whatever, so we thought AC Milan would destroy them.


Unfortunately, Bari scored first. It was exciting and fun to watch, but it was frustrating.

You know that rush of joy you get when the team you're rooting for scores? We got that 3 times. AC Milan scored 3 times. Except, the third time's the charm and only the third one counted. I don't know the rules of soccer well so I have no idea why the other two didn't count.

The game ended up tied 1 - 1 and when it ended everyone just got up and left with no fanfare. It was strange.

Since I'm lazy again, here's the album from my Milan trip:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=380279&id=697649967&l=3d5f1c5ece

I couldn't think of any clever captions for them, so I didn't feel the need to put them in the blog separately. I know it's less impressive this way, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want to.

After the game we bought stuff, wandered around in the rain more, and took a bus to a subway station that was on a completely different line than the one we got off of. Oh well.

Then we took a Harry Potter train back. Except we bought "standing room only" tickets so we got kicked out of the Harry Potter cabin we stole. From Bologna to Florence we had to sit on these weird pop-out seats in the aisle, which proved to be difficult when the Harry Potter Snack Trolley came by. So once we got to Florence we stole another Harry Potter cabin. We did homework, slept, and just had fun.

It was really great for all of us to travel together! I had so much fun. Milan wasn't my favorite city, but the game was awesome. It made me miss home a little.

WARNING Mom, skip the next paragraph.

Now I have a lot of stuff to celebrate this week: we're celebrating my birthday tonight since I turn 20 at Midnight, then we're celebrating tomorrow since it's my actual bday leading into the 17th, which is obvvvv St. Patrick's day.

END WARNING

Thursday is also the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, so there's bound to be lots of fun stuff happening.

Ciao for now, and hopefully I won't be so lazy when I blog about the rest of this week/weekend!

Ninja Chef

So this weekend was super fun. First, let me start off with another food experiment with Mary and I where we make Chicken Parm.

First we went to the butcher, who now actually likes us and laughs at us when we mess things up instead of getting more angry. He thought it was hilarious when Kara asked for honey instead of pork. Anyway, we bought some chicken from him, thinking 2 pieces each would be good.

Then we breaded them and such, using my awesome skills that Mom has passed down to me. Mary helped too. Then we started the long process of cooking the chicken.


Now, the butcher did a very bad job of making the slices the same thickness. Like half would be really thick and the other one would be reeeeeeeeeally skinny.

Now please enjoy this progression of pictures of us cooking the chicken then devouring it. I literally thought I was going to die since I was soooo full but it was delicious.

Please note that the blog is called "Ninja Chef" because Mary almost dropped a full piece of the chicken but caught it in her hands. I have no picture of this and usually I say "no screen shot, didn't happen" but I swear this did.

Add the most delicious mozzarella ever.

And sauce.

Lots of sauce.

put in half-working oven.

Add lots of pasta, which turns out to be highly filling.

At this point I thought I was done for, but I said, no stomach, you want all of that.

Mary was out. She's done.

One bite left.

Ted would probably say, "Fatty."

I agree. then I died of overeating. I'm fat and happy, and also in Heaven.

Mary and I keep improving out madd skillz in the kitchen. Watch out, home. We're looking at you next.

Trying to Update More on Spring Break (since I'm bound to have a lot to talk about after this weekend)

Forgive me if my blog posts are choppy and not as polished or informative as they usually are. I'm trying to get all of this in, but it's hard to remember everything that I want to. I'm taking away from my nap time to do this, btw, so you best appreciate.

So after we explored Dublin. we decided to go out. But since we had been washing our hair with the body wash I had brought (we couldn't find travel sized bottles of anything in Italy) we bought some shampoo and conditioner and wanted to shower. Upon returning to our hostel, we befriended our roommates, Anna and Aida, who were from Austria. We all had a good time and got to know each other (their English was quite good, especially since Anna wants to teach it) and we all decided to go out together. So we got ready and went to Temple Bar.

Incidentally, Temple Bar is not actually a bar. It's a large group of bars that are all insanely crowded. Some of them were even over 21 only. I didn't know that that existed in Ireland. Anyway, I got ID'd at approximately every place we went, and I didn't have my passport on me. I'm not sure if I was just unlucky or I look young, since the checks seemed pretty random and just happened to fall on me. Mostly they let me in no problem after scolding me for not having my ID (but I'll be damned if I'm bringing my passport out to crowded Irish bars when I plan on drinking...), especially when Mary and I informed them that we were studying in Italy. One guy (after saying that he thought americans had 3284378429 forms of ID) said, "Oh yeah. The Italians don't care about anything." In matters concerning bars, sir, you are correct.

Temple Bar was too crowded for us, so we ended up at a quieter bar overlooking the river. We met this cool Irish guy named Garret who perpetually made fun of Mary for being from New York City and telling her she looked like and American (he said that before I said anything he had thought I was an Italian) while Mary and I tried Guinness. I do not like Guinness, but Mary enjoyed it. So we sat and chilled with him while he told us odd Irish expressions (like "pickin' the moneys out of it, which means being nitpicky) and his adventures around the world. It was fun and we got back quite late again.

After definitely not getting enough sleep, we rose and shined early enough to catch our 9 AM tour bus around Wicklow National Park. It's known as "The Garden of Ireland." Wild Wicklow Tours was probably my favorite thing about Ireland. We were informed that many movies were filmed here and saw where the set was. Movies include: "P.S. I Love You" "Braveheart""Excalibur""King Arthur" - a stretch of Hadrian's Wall was built for this movie. "Lassie" "Michael Collins" - the Wicklows are standing in for Cork."Reign of Fire" and "Zardoz" Please note that I copy-pasted that list since I only remembered like 2 of those.

The pictures I have can't do the place justice, and since it's still winter everything was cold and dead. I may or may not have (and I mean I definitely did) poured Jameson Whiskey on Mary's foot. Here's how my thought process goes with whiskey: I do not like whiskey. I am offered free Irish whiskey. I think it might taste better than other whiskey. It does not. I remember why I do not like whiskey. I turn to pour it out and fling it onto Mary's foot (she was not wearing appropriate shoes... jussayin) and we have a good laugh about that.

We had a good lunch (I had a hulking bowl of beef stew that could feed my entire family) and I tried Guinness again with Black Current in it. Here is my thought process on Guinness: I do not like Guinness. I am offered Guinness. I think it might taste better with berry flavor. It does not. I remember why I do not like Guinness. This time it does not end up on Mary.

Next we went to Glendalough, the Valley of the Two Lakes. There's a cool graveyard that's going to be full soon, with a cool tower and one of the biggest Celtic Crosses (still not recognized by the Pope due to it's Pagan acceptance) ever. It was so pretty to walk through the bogs (safely of course. Allegedly bog holes suck you in faster than quicksand)even though it was quite chilly. We got funny postcards and some ice cream (not gelato for once) with flake (???) even though it was raining. Then we got back on the bus and headed home.

Ireland was treating us well so far. I had never had much interest in going there, but seeing Dublin made me really want to see Galway, Cork, Belfast, the Blarney Castle, the Moher Cliffs, and basically everything else Ireland has to offer. I'm pretty sure I saw our writing teacher, Naoimh (which is pronounced Neeve) in Dublin since she was in Ireland at the same time as us. I can't be sure though and that's an awkward question to ask your Irish teacher who for some reason teaches in Italy. Idk.

Next we met up with Faith, Mary's friend from high school. We less-than-legally were staying in her dorm with her so that we didn't have to pay for a hostel for 2 more nights. It was super fun to just chill and for them to catch up while I listened to their crazy high school stories.

The next day we went walking around Dublin some more, we headed over to the Guinness Factory. Now, everyone says "Dublin is a really small city! You can walk anywhere!" Yes, you CAN walk anywhere, but your legs will be screaming at you by the end of the day. Everything looks much closer on the map.

The Guinness Factory is off the main roads in what would normally strike any American as a sketchy alleyway. Fortunately, living in Italy, I no longer have qualms about walking down deserted, small, slightly sketchy streets. The factory itself is freaking huge - 7 levels all telling you about the process behind one of the most famous and complicated beers in the history of ever. There's a tasting on like level 2 (which I again tried... 3rd time is not the charm and I still don't like Guinness) and they show you how they make the special barrels for the beer and how it's transported. Some of the commercials for Guinness were awesome and hilarious. Mary and I will constantly be singing "Guinness is Good for You!" and "My Goodness! My Guinness!" and picturing an assortment of adorable animals and such.

On the sixth level they give an elaborate description of how a Guinness is to be poured. There is a station where you can pour a pint, but you have to drink it on that level. Again, I do not like Guinness (but seeing it is pretty cool) so Mary did the pouring and I recorded it. I stupidly had my camera sideways for half of it, so the video is also sideways (in my defense, I was going to take a picture first... but if a picture is worth 1000 words, how much would a 2 minute video be worth? That's right, more.) for part of it. It's on my facebook so everyone can see it I think.

Next we went to the top, where if you didn't pour your own pint you get a free one here, and pot a great overview of Dublin. Of course, my camera died here, so I have no pictures of the rest of the day... WHEN WE WENT TO THE ZOO!

Dublin Zoo was a deceptively short looking walk on the map. Again, you CAN walk everywhere but... Yeah we were dead. We only had a little over an hour in the zoo, but it was really cool. Except they only have like one of every animal. Except flamingos. There were lots of them.

The African Safari was closing earlier than the park, so we tried to head there first. Unfortunately you couldn't make a full loop, so we only saw half. Awesomely enough, we saw the Arctic Wolves (not in the African section, just to clarify...) and the African Hunting Dogs feeding. I've never seen those animals eat, and it's not as lighthearted as watching the penguins get fed. It was cool though.

After exploring the zoo until closing time, we headed back to Faith's in what I can only describe as THE LONGEST WALK EVERRRRRR. At least it was flat. So we made dinner with her and then met some of her friends to hang out. Her roommates and the friends we met were all French trying to learn English. They were all really fun and said things in funny accents and referred to Faith as "Face," which I still laugh about when I remember. I learned a cool magic trick from them. I found myself wishing that my study abroad experience was like hers, but she said that the language barrier is so frustrating that it often gets her down. I'm glad I'm loving my experience in Perugia, and I hope faith has an excellent time in Dublin for the rest of her stay.

With two good nights of sleep (umm we pushed two love seats together and slept there awkwardly) we were in our last day of the Ireland part of our trip. We saw the architecture of Trinity College earlier in the week, so we decided to see some more before heading off to London. After a good ol' Irish breakfast (COMPLETE WITH ACTUAL TOAST AND BUTTER OMG SO EXCITING) we stopped at Dublin Castle.

Dublin Castle is like... half castle, half modern buildings. It was cool to look at from the outside, but everything costs money to get into. For the same reason we did not go into Trinity College to see The Book Of Kells, and did not go into St. Patrick's Cathedral, we did not go into the "castle." But we went into the gift shop! Irish stuff is cool.

After a final goodbye to Dublin's main area, we headed to the airport. We got there way early since we had cut it a little close for comfort at Ciampino, but our fears were unfounded. I guess Tuesday at 4 is not a popular time to fly.

We wandered around the airport, bought chocolates for Tina's flat to say "thanks for not making us spend money on a hostel in London" and Mary stuffed even more Irish gifts into her obscenely large backpack. Then we hopped onto out plane and nearly cried when we had to leave Ireland. We got some cool pictures of it out of the window though. Dublin, you're breaking my heart.

The sadness of leaving Ireland went away during the hour flight as we got to London and I got closer to seeing Tina! They apologized to us for the flight being 5 minutes late (we had received no such apology in Dublin for being much later...) and we didn't even have to get our passports stamped. After some confusion and a lot of phone calls to Tina, we figured out where we were meeting up.

We took a train and then "the tube" as they refer to it to get to Tina's flat. It was warm and cozy and I liked it a lot. It was their midterm week so they were all busy studying and packing for break. After a lovely little chat with Mom, we all relaxed. Mary and I mooched their internet to watch Glee before heading to bed.

Wednesday, we did a blitzkrieg of the monuments. Big Ben. London Eye, Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Globe Theatre, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace. At the Tower of London we didn't go in for the cost reasons, so we got some fish and chips.

Um. The birds in London are quite bold, so they'll come right up to you if they want something. One of them was cute so I fed it a little of a fry. I know, bad idea. But Mary had a disastrously worse idea.

"I want to see if he'll eat out of my hand." Holds out ENTIRE FRENCH FRY. Little bird takes it from hand and drops it on ground. Seagull swoops in and picks it up, but drops it. Another one catches it in its feet. "Wow they catch them!" Mary begins to throw fries at seagulls to watch them catch them. More birds gather, then Mary runs away because NOW SHE REALIZES THAT SHE'S SCARED OF BIRDS. Birds attack our food. Tons of people come over to watch and take pictures as we run away and the birds destroy our food. Fortunately some small child (you know how kids are... they have to chase the birds!) came and frightened them away so we could clear the garbage. Soon after we saw a sign that said "do not feed birds." Too late, sign.

So after we saw the monuments we visited Tina at her job. The stationary shop is adorable, and really close to Trafalgar Square, which Mary and I explored while Tina was finishing. After she got done, we went to this huuuuge souvenir store that had William and Kate's faces on everything and everything had the flag on it somehow. It was really cool.

DUUUUUUUUUUUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN. Next we saw Phantom in excellent seats that were significantly cheaper that what I would have payed for the same thing in the states. Her Majesty's Theater is right by where Tina works, which is dangerous for her. John Owen-Jones was my favorite Phantom (I mean I've only seen 3 in the 4 times I've seen the show) and Sofia Escobar was amazing and my favorite Christine. Will Barrett was a great Raoul, but it was after the show that he won my heart. Now please enjoy this part of the story shamelessly stolen from Tina's blog:
Will Barratt (Raoul) came out first again and was super sweet. He signed my notebook cause we didn't buy another programme. He is hilarious. He asked me how to spell my name. Here's a rundown:

Will: What's your name?
Me: Francesca
Will: Is that spelled the normal way? F-R-A-N...?
Me: C-E-S-C-A. Yeah. Um, is there an abnormal way of spelling it?
Will: You wouldn't believe the crazy spellings I get. Someone will be like, oh yeah, my name is Chris! And I'll be like oh, ok, C-H... And they will say, actually its K-Y-R-H-S (and then he rolls his eyes and laughs). So whereabouts are you from?
Mary:New York City
Will: *No reaction*
Me: *gestures to me* We're from Buffalo.
Will: Buffalo!? Buffalo, NY? I did a concert there once. That was like ten years ago... Yeah, I've been there! I have done concerts in weird places... Roanoke, Birmingham...

yeah. He was super excited.

Next Sofia came out and was hogged by French people for a while. I can't blame them, she's awesome. Then she came over to us, smiled at me and said "I remember you!" To me and Tina. To which I replied "Actually, you probably remember her. Cause we are twins."

Mary and I thought Tina was going to drop dead from excitement at being remembered by a POTO star. I was pretty pleased, and am now planning my next Phantom trip. I swear once you see it once you're hooked. This was probably one of my favorite things about London.

The next day we went to King's Cross station to see platform 9 3/4 but the whole station is like under construction. Oh well. Mary and I explored the streets of various areas in London, went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, then went to Chinatown. I got a meat bun that was delicious. And Mary got Bubble Tea, which she's been craving.

We met up again with Tina and explored Trafalgar more during daylight. Then we got some dinner (at Pizza Hut... I got a good dose of American food during this trip) and headed over to the Adelphi Theatre. We were braving the drama and our own notions about the show to see Love Never Dies, the sequel to Phantom. Now, the Phantom needs no sequel, but since there was one and I have my doubts that it will make it to America or that it would run long enough for me to see it, I treated Tina to it. Trust me, she was curious. We were afraid that it would actually be a good show and that we would have been hating on it for no reason.

Our fears were unfounded. Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess were awesome as the Phantom and Christine, but there isn't enough of a plotline for their voices to carry. It's contrived, there are way too many special effects and gimmicks that are distracting, and despite reeeeeeeeeeeally trying to like it, we couldn't. The balcony was quite empty, so we got to move down like 7 rows, upgrading our cheapest seats to awesome ones. It didn't make it much better. The kid who played Gustave was adorable, but it couldn't save the show.

We went to the stage door after, but they were having a cast party thing since about every major person except the Phantom is leaving the show. I wonder why... not.

After this we turned in so we could be ready and rested for our return to Italy. At this point, I was longing for Perugia. We had one more stop to make - Pisa.

We got to Stanstead Airport but it was a close call since we couldn’t find our bus and had to catch a later one. No big deal. We got to Pisa really late at night, but our flight was actually early on this one. We wandered and had some mediocre pizza for dinner, but Sarah, Tina, Mary, and I just wanted something to eat. The hostel was kind of nice, it had a big sign, but my bed didn't have a pillow. I was okay with that though.

Pisa is cool. We decided to be really touristy and climb the Leaning Tower. It was kind of a rush to get to the tower and get to the train station, so Tina's friends (who had arrived earlier than us and had already climbed said tower) had to bring our stuff to the train station.

The Tower was really weird to walk up. Since it's leaning, so are the stairs. Its unsettling and unnerving to walk up, not to mention tiring. I thought the view was all right but I’ve seen amazing views of Italy before. Tina and Sarah, however, had not. The stairs were slippery and it was hard to walk down while others were walking up.

We quickly made our way back to the train station and were on our way back to Perugia. I wasn't tired, and for a while everyone stayed up to admire the Tuscan countryside. Everyone fell asleep and it was a peaceful ride to Perugia. We got a little tripped up when we had to change trains in Florence, but we got it.

Now it was my turn to be awesome. Perugia would probably be hard to navigate and find cool things if you didn't know about them. Fortunately, Tina and her friend had me, an expert, to show them around. They also had the twins who could translate Italian to them and English to the Italians, so it was awesome. I finally felt like my Italian was useful!

I took them to my favorite restaurants, finally got them good pizza, and we all ate inordinate amounts of gelato. I partook in everything since I had been out of Italy for a week. I'm in for a rough ride when I go home if I gorged this much after only a week. Geez.

I loved showing off Perugia and they all loved it. It made me realize that I definitely made the right decision (in Dublin Mary and I wondered if we should have gone there... same in London...) to come to this city in the hills of Italy. At one point I believe someone said "Now I see why the reindeer cannot climb the hills of Italy." Got that right. Need a Dominic the Donkey.

Spring Break was great! I've probably left a lot of details out, but too much happened for one blog post. Now we're on the fast track to the end of the semester apparently.

This weekend my Food class is going to Florence to go to a restaurant that recreates Roman dishes. I'm excited. Then I come back to Perugia only to leave again for Milan!

Hopefully a lot of fun stuff happens, but not enough so that I ever have to write this long of a blog again. Geez.

I hope this covers everything! Hope it wasn't too long or boring!

Ciao for now!

A Long Overdue Update on Spring Break (if only I had time or good internet)

I have no idea how I am going to pack everything that was Spring Break into one blog post. SO I probably won't until I have a little more time. Which will be never, since apparently now the speed of the semester will be careening out of control until we finish.

Also, I usually pepper my blog with relevant pictures to accentuate the important things that I'm saying. Well, I took over 500 pictures, so that's not happening. I'm lazy and now all of my energy has been going towards the schoolwork that I am perpetually behind on in this country.

SO I'm using my time wisely and uploading said photos to facebook and I will post the links here so you, dear reader, can see them. Hopefully it works.

So anyway, Mary and I were the second group of our apartment to leave. We left after her internship to go to the train station after cleverly arranging our bags to fit maximum luggage while leaving room for souvenirs.

We got on the train at about 5:40 or something, and the three hour-something train ride went by quickly. Usually I sleep on transportation vehicles, but I was too excited for break to start. We chatted and some nice Palestinian man said our English was very difficult to understand. It might have been because we were talking about Broadway musicals that he couldn't understand us. Anyway, we told him we studied in Italy and he said "All of the people in my country go to America to study and you Americans come here?" Yes, sir, we came here. Not regretting that decision.

Here are the links to two of the albums:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=378464&id=697649967&l=efef434af6

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=378470&id=697649967&l=cc0652baf7


So we get to Rome and proceed in our usual way of wandering around the area we think our hostel is in until we find it. We walked past this one. Thankfully we wandered back. The signs on the hostels we pick are not particularly... um... visible most times. And we always seem to need to find them at night...

Anyway, Rome was awesome. We went to Ancient Rome to see all of the crumbly stuff, but we didn't go inside since the lines were so long and we only had a limited time before we needed to get to the airport. It was cool, but we kept getting heckled by vendors and people asking if we wanted tours.

SO then we went to the Trevi Fountain since it's awesome and beautiful. We ate gelato there since we knew we wouldn't have it for a while. It's was beautiful and we didn't want to leave.

Next we wanted to see the Sistine Chapel but we stopped at the Vatican City first. The architecture and the paintings and stuff are stunning. Then we asked for directions to the Chapel and had to walk along the Vatical wall for what felt like forever.

After dealing with the biotch at the ticket booth, we went into the Vatican Museum. Looking at the Sistine Chapel hurt my neck since all the cool stuff is on the ceiling. Fun fact: When on a tour with Zach (he works at Umbra), he told us about "Perugino, who painted the Sistine Chapel's... walls." I'm not sure which ones were Perugino frescoes, since there were other artists too, but he's from Perugia (obviously...) and it's cool that he's in the same viewing space as Michelangelo.

After the chapel we hurried back to the train station and had to ask like 30 police officers how to get to Ciampino Airport.

And here's a third link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=378516&id=697649967&l=b51f00e27d


Our flight to Dublin got in late and we boarded half an hour after we were supposed to have left. Also, it was weird because we had to take a bus to get to the plane. Anyway, we got to Dublin an hour and a half later than we originally anticipated, but since they are an hour behind Italian time we had estimated wrong anyway.

As we make our way through the empty airport, we had to get our passports stamped. The only thing is, we aren't part of the European Union, which has the first booth. No, we're part of Other, which is at the other end. Seriously we had to pass like 22 unoccupied booths to get to the one person working at the other end. It was very strange. But he was really nice. Here's how the check went: "Mary Cole. That could be Irish. (Opens my passport) Yupp that’s an Italian name." Then we were on our way.

As usual, we had no idea where our hostel was. It's one thing to find it on a map and such. It's another to find it in a city. But the Irish were very nice and helped us find it after a stop at good old Burger King (which is totally different than US...)

The hostel was all right. We had to pay to use computers but whatever. It was warm (which is a change for us from Perugia) and comfortable. Now that we are safe and sound, things are looking good for Spring Break.

We turned in at like 2 AM after settling in and checking our Facebooks. Obviously our priorities are in order here.

I must admit that my memory of Saturday is kind of fuzzy. The cold, windy Irish air made it hard to see much less remember what was going on. But Dublin is wonderful. I'm pretty sure all we did was wander around the city and take lots of pictures. St. Stephan's Greene was a cool little park. Dublin is a pretty small city all things considered, but it's flat and the people speak English, so it was amazing.

Mary and I decided to splurge (and I mean SPLURGE) on good Irish food, so we went to a restaurant recommended to us by the hostel. We got an appetizer of the three kinds of stew they offered: Lamb, Beef, and Bacon & Sausage (a Dublin creation) and all three were delicious. Our waiter was awesome and kept checking in on us. We each got a main course (mine was sausages with mashed potatoes and peppercorn dressing and Mary got a potato pancake filled with vegetarian chili) and we also got Bailey's cheesecake and Bailey's coffee for dessert. It came out to be... ummm... 63 euro. But it was soooooooooooo worth it.

We also met this nice Irish priest and his sisters. They got seated at the same table as us. We had a very pleasant conversation with them. Only in Ireland.


Unfortunately at this point my computer is dying and I have a lot of other things to do. I'll try to update tomorrow to finish the week. It might take me a week to talk about everything that we did, but whatever. It's my blog and I'll write at whatever pace I want. That's a lie. I'll write at whatever pace time and battery allows and I'll post when the internet decides to not hate me for a moment!

But here's one more link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=378521&id=697649967&l=c41aeb4261


Ciao for now. Day 2 or 3 or whatever it's considered of Ireland then London and TIna's visit to Perugia. Gahh this is gonna take a while.